Hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters in multiple state primaries this year have voted for an “uncommitted” option rather than for President Joe Biden as part of a movement to protest his administration’s handling of the war in Gaza.

There isn’t an option to vote “uncommitted” in Illinois, so Palestinian and Muslim community leaders urged voters to either leave the presidential ticket blank, or write in “Gaza.” But state and local election authorities only count votes for certified presidential candidates, so there isn’t a way to count how many ballots wrote “Gaza” or were left blank in protest.

In Cook County, Biden still won handedly, but there are signs of discontent among a sizable number of Democratic voters.

A recent Chicago Sun-Times analysis found that 20% of Democratic voters in Cook County didn’t choose Biden, meaning he received less support this year than any other incumbent Democratic candidate in a presidential primary since 1980.

A closer look at election returns by precinct shows there were parts of Chicago and suburban Cook County where a much larger share of voters, and in some precincts more than 40% of voters, appeared to cast protest votes.

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WBEZ analyzed the share of Democratic voters in every Cook County precinct who didn’t vote for any of the four certified presidential candidates (Biden, Marianne Williamson, Dean Phillips or Frank Lozada). This is the closest approximation to a protest vote because it represents the share of voters who either left the presidential ticket blank or voted for a write-in candidate or cause, such as “Gaza.”

Highest rates of Gaza protest votes found in the southwest suburbs

Countywide, 12% of Democratic voters, or roughly 68,000, cast ballots and left the presidential ticket blank or voted for a write-in candidate. In suburban Cook County the percentage was lower, just 8%. But, collectively, in southwest suburban Palos and Orland townships, places with large Palestinian populations, more than 20% of Democratic ballots didn’t include a vote for a certified presidential candidate.

In four precincts between those townships, more than 50% of Democratic ballots didn’t include votes for president. In Palos Township precinct 25, about 84% of Democratic ballots were missing presidential votes, the highest such share among all precincts in Cook County. Out of 214 Democratic ballots cast there, 180 didn’t include a vote for a certified presidential candidate. And of the 34 voters who did pick someone, just 15 chose Biden.

Bassem Kawar, a longtime electoral organizer in the Arab, Muslim and immigrant communities, said the protest vote movement in some southwest suburbs largely spread by word of mouth.

“The outreach that happened within the community around this campaign was organic and was more on the friend-to-friend level,” Kawar said.

The numbers, he said, “show what five months of protests and the impact of all the protests on the streets is doing to the polls, and the mass education over five months and how it translated to a truly organic grassroots campaign with people sending messages to family members, Facebook messages, Instagram messages and putting up videos.”

In Chicago, the wards with the highest share of ballots that didn’t pick a presidential candidate or picked a write-in were the 35th, 26th, 25th and 11th wards, which cover parts of the Logan Square, Avondale, Humboldt Park, Pilsen, Little Village and Chinatown neighborhoods. In each of those wards, nearly 30% of voters cast blank or write-in ballots for president. Other parts of the city also saw high percentages of voters who opted not to vote for a certified presidential candidate. In each of the 1st, 49th, 50th and 33rd wards, more than 20% of Democratic ballots featured no vote or a write-in vote for president.

Kawar wasn’t surprised that a large share of voters in progressive strongholds on the Northwest and Southwest sides cast protest ballots.

“The elected officials of those communities [are] very responsive and very supportive of the call for Palestinian rights,” Kawar said.

Alds. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, 33rd Ward, and Daniel La Spata, 1st Ward, introduced the cease-fire resolution passed by the Chicago City Council in January. In addition, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th Ward, has been a vocal critic of the war in Gaza.

Down-ballot races got more votes than the presidential race

Counting the share of ballots that didn’t pick a certified presidential candidate is only an approximation of the protest vote. Voters could have written in something other than “Gaza” or skipped the presidential race for other reasons.

To get a better sense of things, WBEZ examined how voters participated in other down-ballot races and how they voted in previous primaries.

A WBEZ analysis finds that many voters who appeared to skip the presidential race still voted in down-ballot countywide races. In the roughly 80 precincts across Cook County where more than 30% of Democratic ballots didn’t include a vote for a certified presidential candidate, just 8% of the ballots were missing a vote for Cook County state’s attorney and 14% didn’t include a vote for clerk of the Circuit Court. In comparison, countywide, 6% of Democratic voters skipped the state’s attorney’s race and 10% skipped the clerk of the court’s race.

Overall, fewer Democratic voters cast ballots for president than for either of the county offices, something that hasn’t happened in a presidential primary year since at least 2012. In last month’s primary, there were 34,000 fewer votes cast in the presidential race than the state’s attorney’s race and 13,000 fewer votes than in the clerk of the court’s race.

“That, to us, was a big message that more people, you know, left the top of the ticket blank in this election as a response to our protests,” Kawar said.

Additionally, most areas with high shares of protest ballots this year voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020, 2016 and 2012, the most recent primary election with a Democratic incumbent. Former President Barack Obama was the party’s presumptive nominee that year.

But, in those previous three presidential primaries, voters in several Chinatown, West Ridge and Mount Greenwood precincts appeared to skip the presidential race at higher rates than the rest of the county. That consistency suggests they may have reasons for skipping the presidential ticket this year that are unrelated to the protest vote movement.

Amy Qin is a data reporter for WBEZ. Follow her @amyqin12. Chicago Sun-Times reporter Nader Issa contributed.